N02451:374
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business…
Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the country. : [One line from I Corinthians]Agricola. Or, The religious husbandman: the main intentions of religion, served in the business and language of husbandry. A work adapted unto the grand purposes of piety; and commended therefore by a number of ministers, to be entertained in the families of the countrey. : [One line from I Corinthians]
Boston: printed by T. Fleet for D. Henchman, 1727
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
II. Do presently, what you would certainly do, if you were sure to Die presently; and leave nothing undone, which under the Stroke of the Sith you will wish to have done. O Vain Mortal, for ⟨p. 148⟩whom here is no abiding; What if the Dead Warrant could be shown thee? This Year thou shalt die; Or, A Month shall devour thee. Wouldest thou not presently go through' a Process of Repentance; Wherein thou wilt pass from Death to Life? Presently, Confess and Bewail thy Sins, and plead the Blood of the Great Sacrifice for thy Pardon? Presently give thy self up unto the Lord, and lay hold on the Covenant of GOD, and send up vehement Petitions to the Glorious One to bestow a New Heart upon thee, and be in Agonies until thou feel a New Bias on thy Soul, and the Love of GOD planted in thee, as a Root, that shall prove a Tree of Life unto thee in the Paradise above! Then, Let all this be done accordingly; be done immediately! The Advance of the Sith requires that it be done, without any more ado. The Maxim is, To make Hay while the Sun shines. While thou hast the Benefit of the Sun shining on thee in a Day of Grace, Oh! Do with thy Might, what thy Hand finds to do. The Thoughts of a Dying Man, Oh! Come into them. They are the wisest Thoughts that can inspire or direct the Living. Our Lord cured the Blindness of a Man with putting of Clay upon his Eyes. If the Clay to which our Death will shortly reduce us, were duly applied unto our Eyes, what a True Sight of Things would it help us to! It was the Wish; Deut. XXXII. 29. Oh! That they were Wise; that they would Consider their latter End, There are many points of Prudence: But, This I say, Brethren; The most Finished and Exalted Prudence in the World, is, For a Man to consider what Judgment he will pass upon every thing at his latter End; ⟨p. 149⟩how he will Judge of every Thing when he feels the Sith •ntting him down; And consider, what those things are, the doing whereof will at his latter End give the most Comfortable or the most Lamentable Reflections unto him: And order his Conversation aright; Even with a Behaviour which the Sentiments of a Man under the Sith, would justify. O Man going down to the Dead; Suppose thy self a Dying, thy Blood boiling, thy Breath failing, thy Throat rattling, and the Decretory Hour come upon thee; Consider upon it; What, what should I wish to have done, at such a critical Time as this?